Amy Dupain Vashaw, Audience and Program Development Director at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State recently received the 4th annual PA Presenters Service Award. The award was given at the organization’s annual conference this year in York, PA on Thursday, June 7, 2012. In the presentation, Mr. Hank Knerr, the first recipient of the award in 2009 and Director of the Lively Arts at Indiana University of Pennsylvania explained, “this award is given to an individual who has made a meaningful volunteer contribution to PA Presenters or the presenting field as a whole.” Formerly, the award was known as Presenter of the Year, but this year was changed so the future recipients could include not only presenters, but artists, agents, managers, and other positions held within the organization.
Amy Vashaw has worked for the past 15 years at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State helping to organize their programming season, creating engagement opportunities with the Penn State and surrounding community, writing multiple grants, and fostering the growth of the K-12 Schooltime Matinee series. Prior to working at Penn State, Amy worked for 4 years for the Pittsburgh Dance Council. It was there that she found her lifelong mentor, Carolelinda Dickey, who bestowed in her a passion for the Arts. Patrick Brogan, the 2011 recipient and Vice President of Performing Arts at ArtsQuest in Bethlehem, PA said in the presentation that during the past 20 years, “Amy has also served as a President of PA Presenters’ board of directors as well as host of the PA Presenters fall block booking meeting in State College for many years.”
Bill Mandicott, the Assistant Vice President of Student and Community Involvement at Frostburg State University in Maryland and the 2010 recipient of the award said, “[Amy] has developed and led numerous Pennsylvania and regional tours, bringing together artists, managers, and presenters to form mutually beneficial relationships. She has always been a champion for arts in education and the importance of all the arts for everyone.” Upon receiving the award, Amy said, “it is very humbling to be recognized in this room full of such highly respected people in the field.”
Pennsylvania Presenters is an organization dedicated to performing arts presenting in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Members are involved in many networking, grant, and block booking opportunities. The mission of PA Presenters is “to promote communication among presenters in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; to provide professional development opportunities to presenters; and to encourage cooperative presenting projects that develop and enhance the presentation of artistically excellent and culturally diverse performing arts programming in Pennsylvania.”